Statement on the Release and Expected Return Home of Freed Filipino Seafarers who were Kidnapped in the Gulf of Guinea

PASAY CITY 15 April 2021 — The Department of Foreign Affairs, through the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs (OUMWA), its embassies in Abuja, Nigeria and The Hague, Netherlands is expecting the arrival of the ten (10) Filipino seafarers kidnapped in the Gulf of Guinea on 19 April 2021. 

The 10 seafarers were released on 11 April 2021, a month after their reported kidnapping.

The Filipino seafarers were part of the fifteen (15) crew members--10 Filipinos and 5 foreign nationals--kidnapped from the chemical tanker Davide B off the coast of Benin, the Gulf of Guinea, on 11 March 2021.

The six other Filipino crew members of Davide B who were spared from the kidnapping arrived home safely on 03 April 2021.

The Department of Foreign Affairs extends its gratitude to the Dutch owners and the local manning agency Elburg Shipmanagement Phil’s., Inc. for the prompt and safe release of the seafarers, as well as their immediate repatriation. END